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Friday, January 23, 2015

Chopped Kitchen At Home Game!

Today is my 34th birthday!
...I can't possibly cook myself...so I'll be letting the kids cook!
They are really good and one of our favorite games is:

Chopped Kitchen At Home Game!
Have you seen Chopped?
It's on Food Network. There are 4 chefs...they begin by making an appetizer with their mystery basket ingredients. Usually bizarre stuff like squid tentacles and greek olives...
Then one of them is chopped and goes home.
The next 3 make dinner with another basket of mystery weirdness...and one is chopped.
The last 2 compete in the dessert challenge...and the winner gets $10,000!
Awesome show. We love it.
So we decided to recreate it at home!
First up...I have to clean the kitchen...and I prepare the baskets...or in this case,
covered plates.

My chefs chill in the chef's lounge until I am ready.
This is the funnest family night game!

I explain the rules and the time limit, 30 minutes.
Also, because this is their dinner too...I have each of them prepare 5 plates...one for each of us.
We don't usually eat all of the food, but store it in containers for the next meal too.
Just enough to try everyone's creations!
Then they reveal their baskets!

Which has most of the "guess work" taken out of it.
They are kids after all.
Today's basket ingredients were:
Romain lettuce, bread dough, grilled chicken and mini peppers.
(we were out of monkey brains...what can you do?)
And, of course, the chefs have access to our pantry and fridge as well.
(but they have to share appliances...)

I started the clock timer and they were off to work.
I love watching the dedication of my kids busily preparing food!

I also act as the host/narrator and say things like
"Chef H is busy rolling out her bread...I hope she knows where
she's going to cook it and gets that started up quickly"

And other tips "Chef D is probably going to want to set the oven to 400* for his rolls"...
It's lots of fun and excitement in the kitchen!

I assist Chef J with the grilling of his bread...he's only 6, so some help is necessary!
I make sure to let the chefs know how much time they have left on the clock too!

And then they plate them however they want!
(note to future gamers...buy a bunch of paper products so you don't have loads of dishes!)
When presenting the plates to the judges (my husband and myself) the chefs
explain their plate in very posh terms...
Chef J
"I've prepared for you a grilled chicken flatbread with peanuts"

Chef H
"I've prepared for you a grilled chicken panini with romaine salad"

Chef D
"I've prepared for you a grilled chicken slider with side salad"

And then for the sake of blogging about it...I took pictures of
all the plates on the chopping block before we actually ate them.
For the actual chopping we just used an "eaten off of" plate.

Chef D, you've been chopped!
He walks away dejected and sad.

But because we are fun parents...
all 3 kids get to move on to the dessert round!
(judging your kids is really hard)
So...mystery basket ingredients are:
4 graham crackers, 5 marshmallows, 1/3 of a banana, and a few chocolate chips
Dessert round got 20 minutes.

Good thing that Chef D stuck around...because
he immediately went to the garage for the torch!

We ended up with some fun desserts...
Chef D's

Chef H's

And I may have helped Chef J make fondant...

After taking both plates into consideration,
Chef J was chopped and Chef H won the $10,000 dollars $1.00.
She was thrilled!

Have you ever adapted a game show for home play?
Tell me about it!
Would you try Chopped Kitchen at home?